>
PICTURED: The 37-year-old who set himself on FIRE outside Trump hush-money trial
Is Speaker Johnson Being BLACKMAILED?
SPEAKER 'RINO' JOHNSON IS A TRAITOR TO THE REPUBLIC THE SAME AS...
Blazing bits transmitted 4.5 million times faster than broadband
Scientists Close To Controlling All Genetic Material On Earth
Doodle to reality: World's 1st nuclear fusion-powered electric propulsion drive
Phase-change concrete melts snow and ice without salt or shovels
You Won't Want To Miss THIS During The Total Solar Eclipse (3D Eclipse Timeline And Viewing Tips
China Room Temperature Superconductor Researcher Had Experiments to Refute Critics
5 video games we wanna smell, now that it's kinda possible with GameScent
Unpowered cargo gliders on tow ropes promise 65% cheaper air freight
Wyoming A Finalist For Factory To Build Portable Micro-Nuclear Plants
Carrying propellant, however, brings its own set of problems. Not only is the chemical highly flammable, but it also takes up a lot of space, which is problematic when designing a small spacecraft.
In a bid to address some of these problems, researchers at the University of Illinois (U of I) and the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) developed a new method of propulsion for small spacecraft that uses nanoparticles as its propellant.
Nanoparticles instead of rocket fuel
The concept of using nanoparticles as a form of propellant isn't a novel one. A previous study published in 2003 by the French-German Research Institute of Saint Louis in the journal Nano Letters demonstrated the use of ammonium perchlorate nanoparticles as a form of solid rocket fuel.
What makes the joint U of I and Missouri S&T study different is the fact that the nanoparticle propellant isn't burned like a traditional solid-fueled rocket. Instead, electromagnetic energy is used to push the nanoparticles in a specific direction.
The propellant that the team used is made of neutral nanoparticles derived from glass or other materials that insulate rather than conduct electric charges. (Related: Breakthrough: Researchers use nanoparticles to separate oil from water.)